By Callum Ludwig
Reconciliation Week began this week on Friday 27 May and runs through to Friday 3 June, and Yarra Junction Primary School is making the effort to recognise Wurundjeri culture.
All students at the school contributed to a large display based on the theme of 2022’s Reconciliation Week: Be Brave and Make Change.
Principal at Yarra Junction Primary School Lisa Rankin said the display is on show in the school’s Bunjil Building.
“Our emblem at the school is an eagle, and Bunjil is the Woiwurrung word for eagle,” she said.
“Every single year, whether it be through NAIDOC Week or Reconciliation Week, the whole school voices the same lesson through their classrooms, and this year we used the theme of Be Brave and Make Change.”
A couple of years ago, Yarra Junction Primary School created a subject called Community Studies, to teach curriculum lessons through a Koori perspective, whether it be geography, history or civics and citizenship. Students also learn the Woiwurrung language of the Wurundjeri people.
Ms Rankin said the subject has really embraced the school’s values of respect, resilience, high expectations and collaboration through First Peoples.
“For example, if we are teaching kids about bushfires, we would also teach them the Koori perspective of the rejuvenation of vegetation, so there’s food for native animals,” she said.
“We’ve developed areas in the school also, like our yarning circle, a place of respect with native plants and a log to sit around. You don’t take anything in there, and you leave it as you found it.”
Yarra Junction Primary School is currently in the planning process of creating a native garden with a dry river bed to further cultivate students’ learning of respect for the land.
Ms Rankin said it’s vital that students understand the importance of First Nation’s culture from a young age.
“They’re going to be a part of our community, and if we can teach them those skills here as a foundation, then hopefully they translate into our whole community,” she said.
“Then we have this great respect beyond the school gates of Yarra Junction Primary School, we’re definitely aiming to create responsible citizens and see these values reflected in the society for these young people who look after our land.”
